Final answer:
In 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' women are seen as inferior and meant for domestic roles, as shown by the protagonist's husband's patronizing treatment and the wallpaper symbolizing the confining domestic sphere.
Step-by-step explanation:
In The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the commonly held view of women is that they are inferior to men and ought to be passive, domestic, and dependent. This particular theme is developed with at least two details from the story: the patronizing way the protagonist's husband, John, treats her and the wallpaper itself as a symbol of the domestic sphere that both confines and silences women.
John often dismisses his wife's opinions and forces upon her a 'rest cure,' which severely limits her intellectual and physical activities, reflecting the broader societal view that women are fragile and not to be taken seriously.
The wallpaper, into which the protagonist projects her feelings of entrapment and desperation, symbolizes the domestic life to which women were confined and in which they were often held prisoner by social norms.